My Week 32 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

From a shot quality standpoint, it was one of those nights that I wished every frame was the 10th, as I seemed to make my best shots in that frame every game and not getting my leverage a lot of the time the rest of the game. As a result, I left a lot of junk, having only two single pins to shoot at all night (I made both, one in each corner.).

Result: 164-159-181=504
Average (96 games): 172
Average for last 9 games: 171
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 558

Brian provided the team highlight of the night with his first deuce game, a 210 in the first game. Team also took the lion’s share of the points (three of four).

After splitting two and two with “Heavy Metal”, “Spare Parts” moved up to 12th place, a half point ahead of “Angry Birds” and two behind “Bowling Stones” for 11th. Our deficit to the lead, held by “The Incredibowls” is 11 points. “The Incredibowls” lead by three over “The 5 G’s” and four over six other teams, led by “Dee’s Boys III” and including “Kickin Ass”, our opponents on Wednesday night.

My Week 31 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

The positives I’ll take out of this one? I closed games well enough, and put enough together in the third game for my best league game (and first deuce game) in over a month.

Result: 164-167-201=532
Average (93 games): 172
Average for last 9 games: 173
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 543

Team pulled off a repeat of last week, winning the third game by enough for total for two points.

Last week, in brackets, Liz got me back for the previous week, winning the bracket I was still alive in in the third game; as usual, I got the $2 back for second in that bracket.

After splitting two and two with “Dee’s Boys III”, “Spare Parts” remanined in 13th place, but now four points ahead of “The Mustangs” and a point and a half behind “Angry Birds”. We are still 11 points behind “The Incredibowls”, who lead both “Dee’s Boys III” and “Split Happens” by three points. My team bowls against “Heavy Metal” tomorrow night.

“The Four Stooges” won all seven in the position round from “The Fifth Element”, meaning our final margin of victory was 17 points, as the latter team was able to stay in second place. I remarked in my team’s thread that we “bowled” like Secretariat ran a horse race…slow out of the gate, but winning going away, like Secretariat’s famous Belmont Stakes performance.

The reason this post was delayed was that “X-Rated” posted a higher series score in the last week than “Don’t Look Ethel” did in setting the four-man series record in the league in Week 9, but did so with an “absent” bowler’s blind score figured into the total. As the previous record was “bowled” with all four bowlers submitting, I didn’t think it fair to either team to uphold one score or the other, and the USBC rule on high team score awards is that high scores bowled with an absent bowler get dropped down to the next lower class, such as four-man when the team normally bowls with five; as we’ve never had a trios league, however, this was not ideal. I eventually took “Joe Bowler’s” suggestion to keep the Week 9 score as the official record, but note the Week 10 score on our “Honor Roll” page. It is worth mentioning that the “absent” bowler would have only needed a series score of 454, or 77 pins under his average series, for his team to equal the official record.

I should explain something for the non-bowlers who are reading this, first: Brackets are a form of side action in bowling in which the bowler pays a fee for each bracket he wants to enter, then is drawn into a tournament bracket randomly with seven other bowlers. The idea is to beat the bowler you’re matched up against each game, with the last two in the bracket getting money back (the others are said to have “donated”). The bracket winner, of course, gets more than the second place bowler, and the person running the brackets usually gets to keep a small amount from the brackets for his time and computer use (brackets were unheard of in bowling before computers came into wide use). Note: The USBC will allow brackets to be run in sanctioned competition because the decision is ultimately based on “merit pinfall”, even though there’s an element of chance in the bracket draw; indeed, brackets are offered at the USBC Open Championships, as well as probably most state and local association tournaments.

I had known about brackets since about the time I knew about the new tournaments in the area (particularly the People’s Tournament), but it was only last season that Shawn got bracket software and began offering $1 handicap brackets in my league. I had occasionally thrown $5 in just to make it interesting, but started entering brackets more regularly recently.

I had won $2 on a few occasions for coming in second in a bracket previously, but my breakthrough was last week, and the reader is directed to this PDF file, which shows the bracket results for last week. The key bracket is the last one in the file, in which I defeated, in order, Al Cochrane, Carol Andersen, and Liz DiBenedetto for my first ever win in a bracket. The $5 for winning the bracket meant I broke even for the week. From here on, I’ll mention any bracket winnings for the previous week in my league night recaps, and will probably post a PDF again the first time I turn a profit for a night.

My Week 30 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

I was looking decent after two games, but then the wheels fell off after a 2/2 parallel move in looked promising, but then wasn’t making it to the pocket; moving 1/1 back out found the pocket again, but it was too late by then.

Result: 180-181-143=504
Average (90 games): 172
Average for last 9 games: 164
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 556

Oddly enough, the game my wheels fell off was the game my team won, and, thanks to my 10th frame recovery, it was by enough for total pins for two points on the night.

I may have a post to make related to last week soon, as it’s a first for me in my new bowling life.

After a sweep of “Sweet Rolls”, “Spare Parts” stand in 13th place, two points behind “Bowling Stones” for 12th and 11 points behind the leading “The Incredibowls”; that team leads “Heavy Metal” by two points and “Dee’s Boys III” (our opponents this week) and “Split Happens” by three points.

My Week 29 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Hoping to build on my good tournament outing on Sunday, I will accept this night. The lanes turned pretty bad quickly, and I found my adjustment on the left lane in the third game four frames too late. However, if I’m leaving six 10 pins and making them all, I can still call it a good night.

Result: 195-157-176=528
Average (87 games): 172
Average for last 9 games: 164
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 541

Team took all four, including the third game handily. Carl and Berta were both over average on the night.